Julia’s profound love for all animals started earlier than she can remember. She has never lived without a pet of some sort and can’t imagine what that would be like. Early in high school she knew she wanted to be a Veterinary Technician after attending a job fair at her school. At that job fair, she learned the scope of practice for a Veterinary Technician is similar to that of a human nurse. It was clear that this profession would be the perfect career for her! She graduated from Pima Medical Institute’s Veterinary Technician program with an Associates Degree in September 2017, and passed her VTNE a few months later. Julia joined the AHoF team in 2018 and has never looked back!

Outside of work, Julia likes to spend her free time attending concerts, traveling and being on the water. She also enjoys viewing wildlife in their natural habitat. If it’s a rainy lazy day she is usually relaxing with her pets and reading. She also enjoys spending time with her enormous family. She currently lives in Seattle with her 3 year old Korean Jindo, Nari who was rescued from the Korean dog meat trade.

Julia Z grew up in Yucaipa, California and volunteered at an animal shelter throughout high-school and college. After moving to Washington in 2016, she started working at Banfield Pet Hospital in Bellevue. A year later she became a Veterinary Assistant and found her passion was working with animals! She is planning to attend the Veterinary Technician program at San Juan College in order to further her education in the field.

Julia moved from Redmond to Renton and lives with her boyfriend, their kitty, Luca, and German Shepherd, Kenobi. Luca was a stray kitten found on the streets and she decided to take him in. He loves to hide under blankets and be lazy most days. Kenobi was a birthday present and has become one of her biggest challenges as he is very stubborn, but can be adorably sweet.

Julia was excited to become part of the AHoF team when she realized the shared compassion and commitment to the care of animals. Even though she is one of the newer members, she is excited for the opportunity to work along side an amazing team with wonderful owners and their sweet companions.

Sam grew up loving animals. She has owned and cared for cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and bunnies her whole life. It didn’t occur to her until she after she had graduated from high school and had to take her own pets to the vet, that working with animals was going to be her career. She started her schooling at Pima Medical Institute where she completed their Veterinary Technician program. In 2012, she passed the VTNE and became a Licensed Veterinary Technician and has loved almost every day of her career choice. There is nothing that she loves more than animals and she very is passionate about top-notch patient care.

Sam’s dog is a Pekingese/Pomeranian named Sergio. He was surrendered as puppy because he had Parvo. She nursed him back to health and he soon became her very best friend. She adopted him seven years ago and he has not left her side since. In Sam’s free time she enjoys hiking with Sergio, going to concerts, traveling the world, and wine tasting in her favorite place, Lake Chelan.

Sam is excited to be working at AHoF with this amazing team and can’t wait to see what the future holds.!

Samantha grew up in the Renton area and has lived in Washington since 2001. She and her husband now reside in Kent with their cat Celia Cruz, named after one of her favorite Latin singers. She has always had a great love for animals and knew from a young age she wanted to do more with them and for them.

Samantha studied at PIMA Medical Institute and graduated in 2017 with a Veterinary Assistant Certificate. She Joined the AHoF team in September 2019 and loves helping animals!

Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her husband Miguel, watching movies and going to the gym. She also enjoys Pinterest, DIY projects, cooking for her family, and cuddling with Celia. Celia is the first cat she has owned and she is one of the best things in Samantha's life. She also cares for her 9 year old Chihuahua, Chispita, who lives with her parents. Samantha cannot imagine her life without her family's pets or working in the veterinary field!

Saresa was born and raised in Washington state and knew at a very young age she wanted to work helping animals. Starting out in 1998 she worked for many years as an assistant while working with small animals, some exotics, and learning her passion for small animal dentistry. After obtaining her VTNE in 2008 she expanded her experience with working in specialties such as ophthalmology and surgery and gained deeper knowledge in anesthesia.

She found her way to AHOF at first in 2009 and worked there before moving to Florida to further her husband's career. There she continued her veterinary technician work. When she moved back to Washington to start her family she returned to AHOF and enjoys very much being able to contribute with her passions in dentistry and client education. She finds true fulfillment in connecting with clients and helping them learn how to take the best care of their furry family members.

In her free time, she enjoys her family with her husband, 2 boys, and their 16-year-old Shih-Tzu mix-Texan. They have fun getting outdoors with camping, boating, and playing sports like baseball, basketball as well as +sprint care racing.

Ariel grew up in a remote area of Idaho where animals were all around. Her family helped care for the horses housed on the land in which they lived. They had cats and cared for other people’s dogs, but she never had a dog of her own until high school. That is when Pippin, a toy poodle became hers forever.
Ariel eventually recused a tabby cat covered in fleas and ear mites and named him Kingsley. With her Kingsley and her Pippin girl, she moved out of Idaho to Southern California, where she volunteered with a cat rescue and met Evie, a Siamese cat who was one of only two who survived. She got her first fish in LA and named her Flounder; Ariel claims she was the smartest little fish as she would follow her finger and do little tricks.
Ariel started working in pet retail and pet hotels and did that for over 10 years. She then moved to Seattle with her animals, and started a career in veterinary medicine as a kennel attendant, eventually working her way up to veterinary assistant. She has dedicated her life to helping animals and can’t imagine having a job that didn’t involve animals.
In my free time, I enjoy practicing photography, taking wildlife and landscape photos and volunteering with Conservation Northwest.

Mark began working with animals in 1999 and hasn’t taken a break since. He became a licensed veterinary technician in 2006 after earning a bachelor’s degree in veterinary medical technology from Wilson College. Between his third and fourth years he completed an internship at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado where his favorite television show Emergency Vets was being filmed for Animal Planet.
Back on the East coast Mark pursued his focus on many institutions of medicine including Penn State’s College of Medicine, Howard Hugh’s Medical Institute, USAMRIID - U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and The National Institutes of Health. It was at NIH where Mark discovered that his foremost subject of interest was in anesthesia. He trained extensively along with medical anesthesiologists at The Clinical Center. This provided an even more thorough understanding of monitoring, dynamics and safety while undergoing extended periods of an anesthetized patient. A single monitored procedure would regularly last over 12 hours. Mark has been involved in over 9000 general anesthetic surgeries since obtaining his license and AALAS certifications.
Mark currently resides in Redmond with his wife. They have a 13-year-old Border Collie named Hoppy who enjoys barking, destroying their wood floors and eating chicken. Mark and his wife love Washington State outdoors and enjoy visiting the San Juan Islands and Olympic National Park. In his off-time Mark can frequently be found waiting in long ferry lines and being overcharged. Mark is very much looking forward to continuing his lifelong interests in veterinary medicine and teaching others.

Erika was born and raised in the Fairwood area of Renton, WA and has always had a love for animals. After college, she spent a few months working at a boarding facility in Bellevue before heading down to the Palm Springs area for a couple of years, where she found her first job as a veterinary assistant. She quickly learned that she loved the field and wanted to continue her career when she moved back to Washington. She found a veterinary hospital in Seattle that allowed her to expand her knowledge in medicine and patient care as a veterinary assistant, and also learned part of the business side as the medical record auditor and helping with administrative work. She joined Animal Hospital of Factoria in September of 2021 as the Assistant Practice Manager and has quickly come to love her coworkers and all the patients she gets to work with.

Erika and her husband moved back to Fairwood after getting married and having kids. They all love hanging out with their dogs, Colbie and Kylo. They also love watching movies, taking walks around the area, and exploring nearby getaways.

Mattie was born and raised in Missouri. She has always loved animals and took a summer job while in college at a small animal hospital and loved it so much she made it into her career. Since that time, she has worked in both general practice and small animal emergency. Mattie loves being able to provide important medical care to patients and interact with their families, as she understand how important they are to their humans.

When Mattie visited her family in the Pacific Northwest 2 years ago, she fell in love with the area, so she never left. She made the move with the love of her life, Roman, her 7-year-old Golden Retriever and has settled in and feels at home.

The majority of Mattie’s free time is spent with Roman, doing some of his favorite activities which include hiking, swimming, paddle boarding, and longboarding. While not spending time with Roman, she enjoy reading, running, and baking.

Stacy grew up in the Seattle area and was always surrounded by her beloved childhood pets. After graduating from the University of Washington, she started working in the veterinary field on a whim. She received her veterinary technician license around 2005 and hasn’t looked back since.
When Stacy is not at work, you can most certainly find her at the barn with her horse, Kaos. They enjoy training regularly in preparation for jumping competitions. When time permits, Stacy is an avid traveler but also enjoys hiking with her husband and their shepherd mix, Ben. On those blustery rainy Pacific Northwest days you can find Stacy curled up on the couch with a good book snuggling her three cats.
Stacy joined AHoF in 2023 and is excited to be a part of this amazing team!

Asmita was born and raised in Maharashtra, India. She has always had an aptitude for science and a love for animals because she grew up with family pets. She earned her Associate Degree in Microbiology from Indian University. After she moved to the United States in 2011 with her family, she decided to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. She completed the veterinary assistant program from Pima Medical Institute in 2018. After working in the field for a couple of years, she decided to go back to Pima and earned her Veterinary Technician License in 2022. After gaining more experience in small animal practices and emergency medicine, she joined AHoF in April 2023.
Asmita loves caring for animals and believes that getting into veterinary medicine has the best thing she could have done. She currently lives in Duvall with her husband, daughter, two golden retrievers (Emma and Joey) and a cavalier (Phoebe). Outside of work, she enjoys cooking for her family and hosting friends. She also enjoys taking all her dogs on walks, watching television with her family and participating in cultural activities.
Asmita is excited about joining the AHoF team and hopes to continue to grow in her knowledge and understanding of veterinary medicine.

Tessa is a Seattle area native and grew up loving and caring for every type of animal from guppies to puppies. Her love of four legged creatures lead her to spend two years, while in high school, volunteering at the Everett Animal Shelter as a dog walker. While working at the shelter she adopted her heart dog, Sookie who had many health issues. This experience sparked her interest in veterinary medicine at the young age of 15. She found great joy in improving Sookie’s quality of life by supporting her various medical conditions. They spent eleven years together, five of which consisted of Sookie being the emotional support animal at their previous veterinary hospital.

In 2014 Tessa attended Pima Medical Institute where she completed the veterinary technician program and obtained her Veterinary Technician license in 2016. Throughout the years she has developed a fondness for patients that are shy and need a little extra TLC to gain their trust. Having worked previously at other practices with several of the Doctors that are now at AHoF Tessa is excited to be supporting them with patient care at this wonderful veterinary practice.

Tessa currently reside in Everett with her husband, Wes and young son, Henry. They love and adore their two dogs Cricket the Chihuahua and Raylan their Labrador mix.

Saa came to Seattle as a refugee from the war in Liberia. Growing up, animals were a part of his life and he always felt connected to them, especially during times of instability within his country. When he came to the U.S., it felt only natural for him to work with dogs and cats. Saa has worked as a Kennel Attendant at AHoF since 2006, just a few weeks after he arrived in the United States. He appreciates the bond that he creates with the pets who board at AHoF, and he loves getting to know their different personalities.

Saa proudly attended Green River Community College and obtained his GED in 2011, despite English being his second language. After accomplishing that goal, he went on to attend PIMA Medical Institute and got his Medical Assistant certification. Working at AHoF has allowed Saa to build a house for his family back in Liberia. He enjoys volunteering at his church and spending time with his wife and two children. Saa is a fixture at AHoF and we don't know what we'd do without him!